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Wednesday, 18 June 2014

Red, Orange and Green

A single Robinson trap run in Bernwood Forest, Bucks for three hours last night produced loads of moths but it was a pity that about two-thirds of them were one species (Tortrix viridana, of which I had in excess of 250). Amongst the macros there wasn't actually a great deal of interest in the catch apart from the exotic-looking Rosy Footman (12 seen), an Orange Moth and my first White Satin of the year. Red-necked Footman turned up as usual (my garden is about the only place that I haven't seen it yet this year), while two Common Fan-foot entered the trap but were on their last legs so their season must be all but over by now. 30 micro species were trapped, including Choristoneura hebenstreitella, Archips crataegana, Catoptria pinella and Perinephela lancealis which were new to me for this year.

The cloud cover stayed with us all night and as a consequence the temperature stayed reasonably warm so the garden trap here at Westcott, Bucks did quite well, bringing in more than 80 species again. However, Celypha striana, Udea prunalis, Udea ferrugalis, Large Twin-spot Carpet, Barred Straw & Miller were the only new arrivals.

During the daytime yesterday I followed up on the report by Mark Griffiths that last July there were lots of Foresters seen on Beacon Hill at Aston Rowant NNR, Oxon. I found two flying already and, from their size at least, they would appear to be Cistus Forester as expected. Dave Wilton